How to Become a Self-Checkout Whiz

Everywhere around us self-service kiosks are appearing. Although it has been many years since the first do-it-yourself checkstands appeared in grocery stores, the idea continues to spread into other businesses. You can now go to a kiosk instead of a live human being at the post office, airport, even the Department of Motor Vehicles is using self-serve kiosks for emissions testing. The technology does differ based on the functions the computers must fulfill, however, most grocery store and retail machines are all based on a similar system. I have had the opportunity, which is indeed sometimes a pleasure and other times a burden, of working a self-serve station at a grocery store for almost five years. My store is setup with the U-Scan® by Fujitsu, but most stations invented by other companies operate similarly. Interestingly, for as long as the machines have been around, and for as often as people use them, they still remain a frustrating proposition to most. Even out of those that use them on a regular basis, there is a large percent of people that express some dissatisfaction with them almost every time through the check-out. Understanding the basic system of how the machine operates is the biggest part of minimizing frustrations for yourself, and the employee operating the computers. If you keep a handful of other things in mind when you use them, they will serve the purpose they were installed for: a quick, efficient, painless way to get your items paid for, and get on your way.

Before deciding you should or want to use a kiosk to checkout your items there are a couple things you should consider. If you are in a big-fat hurry, go to a normal checkstand. While systems like the U-Scan are designed to be quick and easy, an actual checker is still consistently the fastest way to have your items rung up. The benefit of the U-Scan is that the store can have one employee manning the station, while numerous customers are actively being helped. So the effectiveness is more relevant to the number of customers out the door in a given amount of time, as opposed to just how speedy one individual transaction is at the machine. For reasons I will elaborate on later, it is almost a guarantee that if you are trying to get out of the store as quickly as possible the transaction will not go smoothly. Secondly, if you are on your cell phone, the U-Scan is not a good idea. Although I strenuously discourage the use of cell phones in any checkout line because it's rude on a level that suggests your parents failed to teach you any sort of social graces, I especially recommend not trying to ring your own goods up while talking on the phone. This is simply because most people lack the multi-tasking skills it takes to simultaneously talk, ring groceries, and listen to the instructions being given by the machine or the attendant.

If you do decide to use the U-Scan, you should bear in mind the way the system operates. In order to best promote transaction accuracy the computer has an average weight programmed for most every item you scan. After scanning each item, the computer will instruct you to put it into the bag. Although the computer has no way of knowing, and therefore does not require you to physically place the item in the bag, you must at least set it down on the bag rack area. Because the entire area where the bag racks are positioned is a scale, you should avoid placing unscanned items in that area. This includes items you have not rung, purses, wallets, sunglasses, cell phones, coffee beverages, and ah, yes, children. Also, you should not remove any scanned items from the scale until after you have paid, which completes the transaction. Clearly not all like items weigh exactly the same, so this can be an easy source of frustration. Let's use a ten pound bag of ice as an example. In this example the software would probably allow the bag of ice to weigh between 9.9 pounds and 10.1 pounds. If the bag weighed more or less than those bounds, your station would tell you to wait for assistance and the employee operated main station would indicate something was not quite right. This is to prevent items from being intentionally or unintentionally placed in the bag without scanning, and to prevent customers from scanning their 20 ounce Coke and then slyly putting that $30 bottle of wine in their bag in its place. With the weight margin for error in mind, it's worth mentioning that frozen products, floral items, and weighed items from the deli, meat, and seafood departments are all notoriously inaccurate. So, if your cart is full with such items, you are probably in for a longer, less-convenient trip through the kiosk. Also, there is no use trying to manipulate the weight of your produce items by lifting up the bag when you weigh them, since that sort of discrepancy would be easily picked up by the software, and in turn the store employee.

Now that you understand the system, using it is very simple. Press whatever "Start" button is on the screen and begin following directions. This is where the mass of people apparently struggle. Those who are on the phone, in a huge hurry, believe they have the system down, or simply are not great listeners have extra difficulty with this. Everyday I witness the fact that first-time users of U-Scan routinely finish before anybody that falls in an above category because they are willing to simply listen to, and then follow directions. The next step is also very important: If for some reason a problem arises the software is proven to show no response to yelling or the spewing of explicative language. Furthermore, hitting the computer screen or emphatically slamming down items does not seem to remedy problems either. However, a patient demeanor has proven to be helpful in eliciting the best customer service from the attendant, even if the more petulant behavior is more entertaining to them.

Assuming by following the directions given you have successfully finished scanning and bagging all of your items, it is time to pay. The only suggestion I have for this is related to the bill accepting device. Years ago bill accepting machines that are now considered archaic required bills to be inserted in the direction pictured, which was always face up. Since then, bill acceptors everywhere, including pop machines, parking ticket kiosks, and vending machines have been updated. Despite the fact that most machines now say "Insert Bill in Any Direction," most people operate under the presupposition that you still must insert them in a single direction. However, the fact is now you can enter them any way you please, and most often "upside down" is the most successful. Truthfully, in a high-quality acceptor, even crinkled and slightly torn bills should be taken without much trouble. If your bill is badly torn or wet, on the other hand, it's best to just hand it to the attendant.

Hopefully with this information, which should make you a self-checkout genius relative to most users, you will have much happier scanning. Perhaps one day this information will either serve to get you out of the store a little speedier, or realize your childhood dream of checking groceries; without actually having to work at a store and cater to the impatient, the petulant, or the chronic cell-phoners.